Veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, in an article posted on his Substack page yesterday, writes that President Joe Biden “seems to be full of resentment because a group of Democratic Party bigwigs, aware that he was failing, forced him to give up his planned re-election campaign and turn over the fight against Donald Trump to Vice President Kamala Harris, and all the more resentment because she failed to beat Trump as Biden did in 2020.”
So Biden, Hersh argues, is escalating against Russia in Ukraine. “I have been told that the strategic implications of the president’s escalation ... had not been fully analyzed inside the Pentagon, and that some important offices, sure to have different views about escalation, were never asked for their input,” Hersh reports.
“Why is Putin, clearly angered at Biden’s willingness to let Zelensky launch missiles at Russia targets ... not moving to go all in against the weakened Ukraine army and the capital of Kyiv?” Hersh asks. The answer, he speculates, “could be messaging from Donald Trump, perhaps relayed through a close associate, who has since his election been nominating the most inexperienced and politically radical cabinet in American history.”
Trump’s “foreign policy appointments so far all share a zealous commitment to Israel and unquestioning support for its ongoing war,” but “Russia is another matter. Trump was precise about the war between Ukraine and Russia in his debate in September with Kamala Harris. And what he said then is consistent with what I am hearing now in my reporting.” Hersh then quotes Trump saying during the debate with his Democratic opponent that if he had been president, the war never would have started and that when he becomes president again, he’ll stop it in short order.
